MovieChat Forums > Michel Vaillant (2003) Discussion > !!!Spoilers!!! Not bad, but one thing re...

!!!Spoilers!!! Not bad, but one thing really bugged me

posted 19 years ago by Cleon
9 replies | jump to latest

!!!SPOILERS!!!

Maybe it's because I don't understand French, but I thought the movie was ok, at least entertaining with some good shots of the cars.

The one thing that really bothered me was how the bad race team owner along with her creepy girlfriend, psycho driver, and assorted henchmen could...

#1 Kill David by sabotaging the gas tank and running him off the road,
#2 Shoot out the tires and crash the rig carrying the LeMans racers,
#3 Kidnap old man Valliant and hold him hostage,
#4 Sabotage the slick tire with some sort of explosive,
#5 Force Michael Valliant to drive their car, and
#6 Shoot the other Valliant Team driver in the shoulder while trying to kill them

all of this and probably more that I've forgotten, and she suffers nothing but the loss of the race, and her driver gets punched. I know the race meant a lot to her, but surely we should have seen her arrested or at least banned from racing for life.

[–] Dockelektro 19 years ago

We didn't saw anyone being arrested, but was it really necessary? The movie ends with the podium celebration, not in the hour, day or month after. We don't know if the police came right after that and took her in, but probably after collecting all evidence they were sure to get arrested. If she was to appear in a possible sequel, that would be strange - she would sure be sent to jail for ages.

[–] julia2284 19 years ago

Was the Leader team ever arrested for their crimes?

[–] MattiasH 18 years ago

It was long since I saw a movie with such pathetic story. That doesnt matter becuase the racing photo was superb.

[–] rasser 17 years ago

#1 Kill David by sabotaging the gas tank and running him off the road

Actually the Leader Team was not the ones who sabotaged David's car. We are told by one of the racers from the Leader Team that Cramer did it to get even for what we see in the beginning of the movie and he does it as a joke. It is also said that Cramer never intended David or anyone to get killed over it.

Just to make things right...

Other than that I too had a hard time understanding why Ruth Wong does what she does to the Vaillant team: I would think that beating Vaillant in a fair race at the Le Mans, would be much better than what she does. If Leader had won the race at the end she would have to live with the fact that she didn't really beat Vaillant. But then again, she seems to be a nutt-case so maybe her actions make sense...

But still I liked the film. I usually never watch French movies, but the few ones I have seen, have been quite good, so maybe I should start looking that way in the future...

[–] pol-edra 17 years ago

Some people don't care how they win, they want to win. Fair doesn't matter. Ruth wants to win no matter what, to erase the dishonor of her late father's repeated defeats. She obviously has issues with her father's image.
Besides, you must bear in mind that this story is from a comic book. Not one of those more modern, grown-up fictions, in which psychologies are as neatly investigated as in some novels, but the old classics, meant for kids and teenagers at the most. Bad guys (or girls) are simple: they cheat, they stop at nothing, and they lose. Good guys are simple: they are honorable, sensitive, kind, and they win.
The movie was very true to the original stories, in which the Leader team is the epitome of evil and the Vaillant family embodies values that make parents want their children to read comics. Buck Danny or Tanguy and Laverdure, other contemporary examples, are of the same family of "politically correct" or "children suitable" comics.

[–] siggy_4844 17 years ago

At the time Cramer sabotaged David's car he was not even driving for the Leader team. And yes he only wanted to slow the Vaillante down. If you watch the scene where the mechanic Jose finds the proteus crystals that caused the explosion you will hear that they only cause the car to stop if put in the gastank and only exploded the car when the car rolled over.

In the comic books the Leader team always cheated to try and win. This was also referred to in the movie in the scene where the kidnapped Henri talks to Ruth and tells her not to be like her father, that he always cheated and she was doing the same thing just worse.

If you read the comic series you would better understand the true reason for her revenge on the Vaillants. This was not really touched upon in the movie. Ruth grew up in an orphanage and did not know her father was the Leader until she was much older, Michel knew the truth but didn't tell her. She finally found out on her own and tracked her father down to Tibet where he was on his deathbed. She lost her father and blamed Michel for not having had time to spend with her father. She swore revenge.

This was a great comic book series and it's a real shame it is not published in the United States. It was hard enough to find this movie in english, I ended up buying an overseas copy with optional english soundtrack or subs.

[–] Zembla 17 years ago

Welllll, that's because it's based on a comic book :)

Comics are a whole different ballgame, and to be honest, I'm not sure I would've liked the movie better if it would've ended with the Leaders being brought to justice. This movie just isn't about that.

Really though, I quite enjoyed watching it. Was very pleasantly surprised, if Michel Vaillant was ever to be projected onto a big screen, this is the way to do it. Saying the story is bad is excessive as well, because, let's be fair, it's just an ordinary comic book story. It never pretended to be realistic, but for what it is, it's very entertaining. It's one of the few movies that can breach the border from paper to film without becoming a bad joke/caricature of itself.

When I was a kid I used to read Michel Vaillant, and the way this movie went, is really recognisable in light of all those comics I've read. I think Graton would've been pleased.

[–] RenaudMan 17 years ago

Anybody wants to post this movie on youtube.com or dailymotion.com so we cal all have the chance to see it, like here in DVD region 1 Montreal Canada, even if only low quality .avi

Quelquèun veut bien uploader le film sur youtube.com or dailymotion.com pour que tous puissant le voir, y compris ici en region DVD 1 Montreal Canada, meme si c'est seulement basse qualite .avi

Luc Besson et compagnie sont des parfaits imbeciles de ne pas avoir sorti ce film au Canada en salle ou au moin en video, dorénavant je boycott et salis tous leurs futurs projets; Ils vont en baver un bon coup pour leur manque de respect des Canadiens ces conards

after all this time there is no more good excuses to to have this film in North America

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[–] texmexmartin 17 years ago

Well, Michel Vaillant is a comic figure. Remeber the enemies of batman or superman etc,, they are all very strange!